RiseSmart Raises $3 Million

RiseSmart, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of job search and outplacement services via the Web, has raised $3 million in Series A funding from Norwest Venture Partners.

 

PRESS RELEASE

RiseSmart, a $100K+ job site and HR service provider that delivers human-powered job search and corporate outplacement services via the Web, today announced that it has secured $3 million in Series A financing from Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). RiseSmart also announced that NVP general partner Venkat Mohan has joined the company’s board of directors.

 

RiseSmart uses Web technology supported by a global team of HR professionals to free senior-level professionals from the labor-intensive task of online job search, and to provide corporate clients a cost-efficient, results-oriented alternative to existing outplacement services. The company was founded in February 2007 and received $1.5 million in seed funding across 2007. RiseSmart launched services commercially in February 2008.

 

RiseSmart’s consumer service offering is RiseSmart Job Concierge™. RiseSmart Job Concierge identifies and screens job openings for $100K+ jobseekers, saving them time and frustration in their Web-based job searches. For corporate clients, RiseSmart Transition Concierge™ bundles RiseSmart Job Concierge service with resume preparation and other transition management services to assist a corporation’s laid-off workers.

 

“Norwest Venture Partners is excited about the opportunity RiseSmart has to transform the way jobseekers and employers use the Internet for job search and transition management,” said Mohan. “While other service providers may talk about personalized service, RiseSmart is the first company to truly deliver on this promise – with sophisticated technology backed by trained HR professionals who are engaged in every search.”

 

“RiseSmart has made significant progress since introducing service earlier this year. Our RiseSmart Job Concierge customer base is growing steadily, and we are making great strides with RiseSmart Transition Concierge – securing agreements with Fortune 500 companies to provide ‘Outplacement 2.0’ services for their transitioning employees,” said Sanjay Sathe, founder and chief executive officer of RiseSmart.

 

“With the current uncertainty in the economy and job market, people and businesses are looking for new job search solutions that save them time and money – which is exactly what RiseSmart delivers. The infusion of capital from NVP will enable us to expand our offerings to more fully serve the needs of both jobseekers and employers.”

 

RiseSmart Job Concierge: Human-Powered Search Assistance

 

A 2008 survey by Kelton Research reports that the majority of online jobseekers spend an average of 50 hours per month searching the Internet for jobs. For $100K+ professionals, this kind of time commitment represents a significant opportunity cost.

 

RiseSmart Job Concierge is a subscription-based service for $100K+ jobseekers that assigns each member a dedicated HR professional who searches more than one million senior-level job listings across the Web, returning only the listings that best match the subscriber’s specific criteria. The global RiseSmart Job Concierge team, supported by state-of-the-art search technology, listens to customer feedback to continually enhance the results it delivers to each subscriber.

 

RiseSmart Transition Concierge: Outplacement 2.0

 

RiseSmart Transition Concierge is a Web-based transition management offering that provides high-touch service and tangible benefits to laid-off workers, while delivering real value to employers. By combining a sophisticated online interface with hands-on interaction with employees, RiseSmart Transition Concierge delivers the next generation of transition management services – Outplacement 2.0.

 

At a significantly lower cost than other transition management services, RiseSmart provides one-on-one telephone consultation, resume preparation and other career services to its corporate clients’ displaced workers. Then, RiseSmart provides RiseSmart Job Concierge service to each laid-off employee for a specified time frame or until a new job is secured.

 

About Norwest Venture Partners

 

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture capital firm that has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 47 years. NVP focuses on investments in information technology including: software, services, enterprise and communications systems, semiconductor/components and Internet, media and consumer. The firm currently manages more than $2.5 billion in venture capital. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, and Mumbai and Bangalore, India. NVP has funded over 450 companies in the U.S. since inception, as well as several overseas investments.

 

About RiseSmart

 

RiseSmart offers job search and outplacement services for $100K+ jobseekers and corporations via the Web. For $100K+ jobseekers, RiseSmart Job Concierge is a human-powered job search service that prescreens online search results for time-starved managers and executives. For corporations experiencing job reductions, RiseSmart Transition Concierge offers high-touch transition management services through a cost-efficient and results-oriented “Outplacement 2.0” model. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.RiseSmart.com.